How to set up a great Swirl filter between media bed and raft bed

[Barbara George]

I have a hybrid system with 7 media beds and 1 raft. between the last media bed and the raft is a swirl filter that clogs up regularly. It has two filter pads in it an I think that is clogging things up. Also, i think I need to clean out the 5 gallon bucket that makes up the swirl filter. Any ideas for a better solution? Please advise. 

[George]

just some thoughts... . . 

A five gallon swirl filter is very small for a 300 gallon system.  A swirl filter is a settling filter so 50 gallons or so of volume would probably work better and you might consider a radial flow VS swirl.  Something else you could think about between media and raft is what Rob Nash calls a polisher, a container of bird netting - the water drops info the bottom of the container and flows out near the top, through the netting and into the media bed.  The netting acts as both mechanical and bio-filter.

[Barbara George]

George, thank you. The five gallon is a 'polisher' as it has as you describe two bird netting filters.  Having said that, do I now need a swirl filter? 

[George]

I really doubt it - only if a lot of solids are accumulating in the rafts.  Your media beds should be filtering most of the solids.  It's a nice looking system.

Barbara George said:

 do I now need a swirl filter?